Bhubaneswar, Jan. 13: The protocol sub-committee of the Assembly today grilled Balangir collector M. Muthukumar for his failure to respond to over 50 letters written to him by Opposition leader Narasingha Mishra.

The Assembly procedure is that all officials are supposed to respond to the letters of MLAs and MPs and address their queries. The MLAs and MPs are to be given due respect by government officials.

Mishra, who is also the Balangir MLA, is said to have had written over 50 letters seeking information relating to various ongoing projects across the district. According to the norms, the collector's office should have acknowledged the letters immediately, and later, the officials are supposed to send replies. In the case of Mishra, not a single acknowledgment was issued. More so, he never got any reply from the district administration.

The issue was raised in the Assembly during the last winter session. Following a hue and cry made over the issue, Speaker Niranjan Pujari had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of senior BJD MLA Nrusingha Sahu. The committee has Prafulla Majhi (Congress), Mayadhar Jena (BJD), Bijay Mohanty (BJD) Manohar Randhari (BJD), Debashish Samantaray (BJD) and Bibhutibhushan Harichandan (BJP) as members.

Mishra, however, today said: "It's not the question of a single collector. Most of the officers, starting from the block to the secretary level, do not respond to the issues raised in the Assembly by the MLAs. None of them pay due respect to the people's representatives."

Nrusingha Sahu, who headed the committee that grilled Muthukumar, told The Telegraph: "During our inquiry, we have found mistakes committed by him. We will summon him once more."

Official sources said Muthukumar assured the committee that he would not repeat the mistake in the future and personally see to it that the queries raised by the MLAs were addressed.

He told the reporters: "Our office has acknowledged the leader of Opposition's letters. I have not violated the Book Circular rules and taken another 10 days time to submit all the documents."

Official sources said that if the protocol committee found some mistakes, it had the powers to recommend to the government to take disciplinary action against him. It can also pass strictures against an official.

This is not an isolated case where the collector has refused to address the issues raised by the Balangir MLA. Most of the MLAs had alleged that officers were not only misbehaving with them, but also refusing to seriously take up the issues. Last year, the Sundargarh police superintendent had refused to meet local MLA Jogesh Singh on the excuse of being busy. Later, Speaker Pujari had referred the matter to the ethics committee of the Assembly.